National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Gobbets of two- and three-tongued green and red flames, dancing about the

white background, contribute to the plutonic nature of the region appropriated to

the reception and entertainment of transgressors.

Below is a yellow border-band and below that oblique sections of pink and red,

suggestive of tiling in perspective. On the extreme right is part of a vertical band

of grey ornament. All outlines are black. The drawing, although generally rather

careless, is certainly expressive.

Kao. III. 019, 020, 0201

It is probable that these three pieces are not from one picture, the centre section

having a type of pedestal differing from the others. They are therefore numbered

individually. The general scheme represents a number of kneeling `donors', and

they probably come from the lower part of one or more large, dedicatory paint-

ings. All the figures are of Mongolian type.

0201, on the left, shows three kneeling men; the upper part of the foremost and

part of the head of the hindmost are missing. In front of them is a pedestal of

curious design and unrecognized significance. Between the figures are Uigur

inscriptions, and in front of the face of the middle figure is a roughly sketched

diagram looking rather like a whistle. The faces are rather red and the hair and

hat black, with a yellow band round the brim of the latter. The robe of the fore-

most man is dark grey-green, with red belt and tabs. The second is dressed in dull

pink with a double belt of red and black and tabs, alternately red and black. The

third is light green with a red belt and black tabs. The base of the pedestal is green

with a yellow rosette above supporting a red disk, of which a very small part is

present. The background is pale buff, a darker buff band dividing it from the

light and dark red tiles of the pavement.

020. This has four kneeling figures similar to those in 0201. The first to the

right is the most complete. It appears from this that the head is partially shaven,

reserving the forehead fringe and the long tresses; two which fall rippling to the

breast and another hanging from the back of the head, behind the shoulder, and

half-way down the upper arm. His robe is pale grey with red belt and tabs. Before

him is a vertical grey band with a repeating spiral ornament in black. Behind the

man is a kind of square pedestal in perspective, with red and yellow base; or it

may represent a hanging tab of textile. Among the many fragments, the upper part

i

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